But the real question remains - will you still whine and moan about how "unfair" it all is? Keep in mind, most of us won't notice, we'll be playing with our new phone...

And yeah, if you haven't discerned that yet, I'm finding the constant whining about SERO tiring as well...

Points well taken hparsons. However I didn't say it was unfair. It's completely fair for a business to do whatever it needs to do to stay in business. The bottom line is that it is all speculation at this point. If you're taking a particular exception to hearing folks discuss theoretical scenarios, then maybe you should stay clear of these threads. The point is that the SERO question will undoubtedly influence many people's decision on whether or not to buy this phone. Having said that, threads like seem perfectly legitimate to me.

My Centro and SERO combination are the best performance and value around. No way would I give up my SERO and pay twice as much for my phone/data plan just to get a new phone. I just don't believe it will be that much better than my Centro. The bigger screen would be nice, but I don't need true multitasking or wifi. I can already play music while I use my Centro for other things, which is good enough.

The updated OS doesn't do anything for you?

HP has officially ruined it's own platform and kicked webOS loyalists and early TouchPad adopters to the curb. You think after you drop it like a hot potato and mention it made no money and is costing you money, anyone else wants it??? Way to go HP!!

And some people are fools to keep believing their hype. HP has shown they will throw webOS under the bus and people are still having faith in them??? News flash: if it's own company won't stand behind it, it's finished!

... If you're taking a particular exception to hearing folks discuss theoretical scenarios, then maybe you should stay clear of these threads...

Where did you get the impression that I "take a particular exception to hearing folks discuss theoretical scenrios"?? I didn't say that. Go back and read what was written.

No, you didn't say it was "unfair". You talked about "forcing" you to do something, spoke of "gimmicks", talked about how Sprint needed to be more "open", spoke as if they are making you pay a higher rate before the end of your agreement (which they are not), and talked about them trying to "kill off" the SERO users.

I think my inference that you were claiming to be unfair was reasonable. If you think they're treating you fairly, why the complaint?

Jesus, give it a rest with the pining for SERO plans, please! Yes they were incredibly awesome deals, but they clearly aren't sustainable for Sprint in the long run. Sprint isn't forcing anyone off the plans, but they are justified in putting conditions around upgrades that will require SERO customers to switch to newer plans. If you don't like it, switch to another carrier - the train has clearly left the station on this issue.

How far into the checkout process until you get prompted with this? I was just fooling around with Sprint's site earlier and I got nearly to the end of the checkout process without being prompted to change my plan. I didn't want to go too far as i didn't want to accidentally order a phone and lose my discount.

Don't Panic
l Just got the T-PRO and activate it / transfer online without any problems, the trick is to own the device, I paid full retail price off of fleabay went online activate it and is working perfectly nothing change in my account...

I wanna see SERO die just so I can see you people who rely on SERO Plans like you do oxygen, squirm. Honestly. It's like, You got subsidized plan pricing, AND you want to have the same access to everything that regular paying customers get AND even S|P customers get too. Um, sorry buddy.. Just like things in life, you need to pay the price to play the game.

Lets look at this like a TV, you think you can buy Samsungs $800 LCD HDTV, and get the same picture, feature, finish, as their $2000 LCD HDTV? Um, no.. But, judging from how you all act on here, you will CALL up Samsung, and pitch a fit to them about how you could only afford the $800 model, but are pissed, feel cheated, and entitled to have the same features as the guy who paid for the extra features, and is happy he did so.

Once again, You are on SERO, be glad you're on that. I'm a happy SEP paying customer and in return, I became a happy S|P Customer, and in return, I have no worries, and don't need to flood boards with <<edited by berd>> posts about how I won't get this phone if it's EP/SEP required, or how I'm going to leave Sprint and get the iPhone (which is funny because you'll just end up spending more on those plans anyways.. lol. You would save more money switching to a EP for the Pre, and even MORE money if you applied a corporate discount to your 450/900min plans).

Here is what I've been seeing. You have SERO, you pay less there. Nothing wrong with paying less, we all look for bargins, right? Right. BUT apparently, being on SERO Requires sacrafices such as special phones such as the Instinct AND Pre.

The posters in this thread have presented both sides admirably. The only thing I have to add is with respect to the following, which is representative of the attitude a lot of SERO people have:

Originally Posted by hambone44

This company is going to keep on losing millions more customers and billions of more dollars. Don't they understand that we sero-ites are going to be free advertising for them, wanting to show off this cool new devise.

Free advertising? I don't think so. It costs money to keep customers, and they provide a service to you for little money in return. That's not free in my opinion.

This martyr attitude is silly. Not only are you getting an extremely cheap deal from a major wireless carrier that is struggling to stay alive, but you think you're being a noble champion of their services and devices? You think they should pay you for the privilege of having you as a customer, like you carring around a phone is going to make or break their business? Who are you? Are you really so important that you can keep Sprint alive?

It is so much more important for Sprint to keep a cutomer like me happy. I have the most expensive Simply Everything plan. Now, if I walk around with the Pre and show it off -- and talk about how great the Simply Everythign Plan is -- that will make a bigger difference. You know why?

I wanna see SERO die just so I can see you people who rely on SERO Plans like you do oxygen, squirm. Honestly. It's like, You got substituted plan pricing, AND you want to have the same access to everything that regular paying customers get AND even S|P customers get too. Um, sorry buddy.. Just like things in life, you need to pay the price to play the game.

Lets look at this like a TV, you think you can buy Samsungs $800 LCD HDTV, and get the same picture, feature, finish, as their $2000 LCD HDTV? Um, no.. But, judging from how you all act on here, you will CALL up Samsung, and pitch a fit to them about how you could only afford the $800 model, but are pissed, feel cheated, and entitled to have the same features as the guy who paid for the extra features, and is happy he did so.

Once again, You are on SERO, be glad you're on that. I'm a happy SEP paying customer and in return, I became a happy S|P Customer, and in return, I have no worries, and don't need to flood boards with <<edited by berd>> posts about how I won't get this phone if it's EP/SEP required, or how I'm going to leave Sprint and get the iPhone (which is funny because you'll just end up spending more on those plans anyways.. lol. You would save more money switching to a EP for the Pre, and even MORE money if you applied a corporate discount to your 450/900min plans).

Here is what I've been seeing. You have SERO, you pay less there. Nothing wrong with paying less, we all look for bargins, right? Right. BUT apparently, being on SERO Requires sacrafices such as special phones such as the Instinct AND Pre.

Sero = Limits
EP/SEP = No Limits

If you want no limits, Pay the price for that.

I have SERO and I pretty much agree with what you said. It's been great, I appreciate the deal I have, but if the Pre requires an Everything plan I have a decision to make. I don't understand why people are upset with Sprint over this. And I think it's hilarious when people say they will be the best advertizing Sprint will have if they can keep their SERO plan. What are they going to say to people?

"Hey look at my cool phone and guess how much I pay per month, $30."
"Wow, great deal, can I get that?"
"No, that deal ended a year ago, but isn't it great for me?"

Trust me, I hope for the sake of sanity, that everyone is allowed to use the phone on all plans. I think honestly, they should offer a "pre" package plan for extra. Such as.. hmm??? iPhone and RIM??

But in the end, we are just waiting to see what happens. I know a lot of you will not initially switch from SERO to the Pre on its initial launch, but over time, envy will set in and will eventually turn you into a moth to the flame.

Now Tony, if we are such a small percentage, we can't be the reason why the company is "loosing" so much money.

Sorry, I didnt mean for it to sound like the main reason Sprint is loosing money. Obviously its because theyre bleeding customers.

Originally Posted by sub150

I still think there is hope. Sprint is making money off of me even if a pay $30 a month. They may only make $15 instead of $45 but that is better than me using Verizon.

There is not that much profit in cellular plans. Also, they probably wont be making anything off of your plan once your data usage goes through the roof. I think it should be obvious Sprint is in the business of making money.

Originally Posted by dsei

The fact that I want to use a different device to use roughly the same amount of service from Sprint in no way affects their operating costs.

You cant be serious. You have heard the Pre runs on WebOS Right? Accessing the web isn't really free for the provider...

Originally Posted by dsei

Good point Captain_Hair. You're absolutely right that Sprint has honored their price throughout the term I contracted with. The difference is with the cable example I would be paying more for additional backend services: HD programming. With Sprint I plan on using the exact same services and probably around the same amount of them.

Again, I don't think its possible for anyone to speculate how much web usage this thing is going to go through, so your analogy is a bit skewed.

Originally Posted by hparsons

But the real question remains - will you still whine and moan about how "unfair" it all is? Keep in mind, most of us won't notice, we'll be playing with our new phone...

And yeah, if you haven't discerned that yet, I'm finding the constant whining about SERO tiring as well...

Originally Posted by The Phone Diva

Personally IMO, for good CS, I think they should leave current SERO customers alone(grandfather them in) and then just scrap the plans altogether for anyone new or who wasn't on SERO before. Sure it doesn't look fair to existing customers not on SERO to be forced onto EP while others are still on SERO, but the last thing Sprint needs right now is customers badmouthing them all over.

Being unfair to all customers isn't exactly good CS. I do understand what you're saying though, but when do you draw the line on CS to profitability?

... Free advertising? I don't think so. It costs money to keep customers, and they provide a service to you for little money in return. That's not free in my opinion.

This martyr attitude is silly. ...

I'm going to take your thought a step further. Who knows, it might be a good opportunity for a poll.

I'm willing to bet that most SERO users have passed on that information to others. By this, I mean they've told friends, family, casual acquaintences, total strangers, etc Hey dood, let me tell you how to get a really good deal on your cell phone plan (or something to that affect).

Got news for you folks, That's not advertising, and it doesn't do Sprint (or those Sprint customers that pay to subsidize the cheaper plans) any good.

If the plans were too good to be true, then why was it true? If Sprint was losing so much money on them, why did they offer them for so long?

Arguing that something must have been financially sound for their company because they chose to do it for a period of time seems like faulty logic to me I think most of us would admit that we keep doing things (no matter how misguided or self-destructive) until we're done learning not to do it anymore. The way SERO has been explained to me was that it wasn't financially viable in the long run and it appears Sprint has now done all the learning they need to, hence the change. I'm not in finance, but my very amateur understanding is that profit margin is a big deal, to coin a non-technical phrase. What people were getting, for what they paid on those SERO plans, was a LOT... which is understandably why people want to keep them. Regardless, as others have said, the $99.99 price for Simply Everything is $30 (about 23%) less per month than the exact same services from Verizon or AT&T. My guess is that for most people those numbers are compelling. Sure, there's folks that will be bitter about losing their SERO plan, upset about their service experiences, etc. They will look elsewhere if the Pre isn't enough of a positive draw to override the other negatives. But, price-wise, it's hard to argue that their unlimited everything type plan isn't financially competitive compared against current plans from other carriers.

Now Tony, if we are such a small percentage, we can't be the reason why the company is "loosing" so much money. I think it would make sense for Sprint to want to keep these customers, give them the Pre and consider them advocates in the wild. How much money does Sprint spend on advertising a year? It has got to be many times the amount that Sero customers as group pay for their plans. So here you would have an advertising program that pays back to the company. I have found that the type of person who has found Sero has done so by scouring the internet and finding deals and posting them on consumer websites. Finding good deals and great gadgets and sharing them with masses is good thing and I do think the everything plan are still a good deal in the big picture, I just can not afford to double my cell monthly payment, thus my desire to keep Sero. I do know that if this phone is what Palm says it is, if given the opportunity to keep Sero and get the Pre I would be a tireless advocate in trying to get blackberry, Iphone, Htc users to switch to Sprint because they would save money and get a better phone. Personally it is just my nature to want to spread the word on good deals on product that can enrich people's lives. I know Sero haters are going tear this apart but I truly feel that we Sero-ites would want to spread the word on the Pre.

Nope, the exact same services from AT&T or Verizon is 50 dollars more per month vs the 99.00 Sprint unlimited plan.

AT&T: 99 (voice unlimited) + 30 (unlimited data) + 20 (unlimited text) = 149 a month. Sprint's is 99.00 for all and even includes Navigation which is 10 extra on verizon (making verizon 159.00 per month) and not offered on the iphone.

My guess is that while many appear ignorant about plans, quite a few iphone owners will look to save some money with Sprint.

A bit late to the thread, but there seems to be a lot of posters who seemingly "know" what plans are going to be available with the Pre. Remember, it's all just speculation. Until we hear from Sprint, no one knows for sure.

While I'd love to have a Pre, I don't see my usage changing just because of a new device. A few more megabytes of data transfer, maybe? So there's really very minimal cost increase for Sprint if they allow me to upgrade to a new device and agree to another 2 year contract. To me, it makes good business sense to allow SERO users to upgrade. I doubt that they're losing money on the SERO plans, otherwise they would not have offered them for so long to so many users.

“Wolves are the top of the food chain, and when the wolf population is healthy, all other animal and plant populations are healthy.” -- Lois Tulleners

I doubt that they're losing money on the SERO plans, otherwise they would not have offered them for so long to so many users.

I doubt they're loosing money on SERO users who have 500 voice minutes and some text.

Im quite sure they are loosing money on SERO customers with 500 minutes, with free unlimited text, free unlimited vision and power vision, free pick 3, free N&W starting at 5, free Phone as modem, free unlimited mobile to mobile, and who knows what other laundry list of free stuff they have managed to get on their plans.

And the second group is the one complaining about possibly getting the Pre...

<<edited by berd>>

Last edited by berdinkerdickle; 04/20/2009 at 12:13 PM.
Reason: language

I doubt they're loosing money on SERO users who have 500 voice minutes and some text.

Im quite sure they are loosing money on SERO customers with 500 minutes, with free unlimited text, free unlimited vision and power vision, free pick 3, free N&W starting at 5, free Phone as modem, free unlimited mobile to mobile, and who knows what other laundry list of free stuff they have managed to get on their plans.

And the second group is the one complaining about possibly getting the Pre...

<<edited by berd>>

Sure, I mean everyones situation is always going to be different. Some not as drastic as yours, and some where they bleed the system dry of unl everything AND free perks and what not.

I doubt they're loosing money on SERO users who have 500 voice minutes and some text.

Im quite sure they are loosing money on SERO customers with 500 minutes, with free unlimited text, free unlimited vision and power vision, free pick 3, free N&W starting at 5, free Phone as modem, free unlimited mobile to mobile, and who knows what other laundry list of free stuff they have managed to get on their plans.

And the second group is the one complaining about possibly getting the Pre...

<<edited by berd>>

For you to be "quite sure" you must have some inside knowledge of what Sprints costs are. Cost per minute of talk, per text message, per megabyte of data? Please cite your source! Also consider that people don't use their phones the same way. I've used 35 anytime minutes since April 8 and 18 N&W minutes, 108 txt msgs. I'm pretty sure Sprint is making a profit with the way I use my phone.

Last edited by berdinkerdickle; 04/20/2009 at 12:15 PM.

“Wolves are the top of the food chain, and when the wolf population is healthy, all other animal and plant populations are healthy.” -- Lois Tulleners